High-tech thermostat

Ever get stuck with a big electric bill because you left the heat too high or the air conditioning too cold while you're out of town? Maybe you'd like to adjust your home's temperature while you're on way home from work.

3M Co. recently introduced a product that allows you to control or monitor your home's heating or cooling system from your computer, tablet or smartphone. 3M says its Filtrete Wi-Fi Touch Screen Programmable Thermostat can cut heating and cooling bills by up to 33 percent.

The thermostat comes with built-in Wi-Fi technology that connects to a heating and cooling system and comes preprogrammed with a setting for optimum energy efficiency. Other programming options include home and away settings, a seven-day programming option and a vacation and holiday setting.

Because it connects to the Internet, you can pull up a weekly matrix on your computer to check you energy consumption vs. trying to look at on a tiny programmable thermostat.

The thermostat is available at Home Depot stores and has a suggested retail price of $99.88.

SUSAN FEYDER

The great shale debateEnergy players sparred Wednesday over whether the boom in shale drilling is heading for a bust.

"They've been speaking to that correction for a few years now," said Stephen Ingram, technology manager for oil field services giant Halliburton. He laid plans for advancements he said will dramatically improve the extraction process, called hydraulic fracturing, and better meet demand for expansion of shale gas drilling.

"We're pretty bullish on the market. That's why we're investing $3 billion this year," Ingram said.

But Neal Anderson, global head of consulting for the research firm Wood Mackenzie, said the market for shale gas, in particular, has "gotten a little overheated."

He noted that booming merger and acquisition activity has been out of sync with falling natural gas prices, and said equity analysts until recently focused erroneously on the volume of gas production, rather than the value.

"They're starting to wake up that a lot of companies are just simply churning cash here. And the real winners in this are the service companies," Anderson said. "I'll remind you of that old adage from the California gold rush: The guys that really made the money were the guys selling the shovels. It looks a little bit like that."